Description

Key Characters:

Growth Form: Large, erect shrubs or small trees with yellowish orange, translucent, bitter latex.

Stems: Stems softly woody.

Roots:

Leaves: Leaves simple. Alternate. Lower surfaces glaucous and puberulent. Margins incised ± half way to the midrib. Petiolate. Stipules absent.

Flowers: Flowers in large, terminal, bracteate panicles. Flowers bisexual (perfect), actinomorphic. Calyx of 2 sepals; sepals ovate to suborbicular, caducous, distinct. Corolla (petals) absent. Stamens 8–24, Stamens distinct; anthers dithecal, opening by longitudinal slits. Ovary superior, stipitate, compressed, 1-celled, placentation parietal; ovules 1(2); stigmas 2.

Fruit: Capsules somewhat fleshy; usually erect on the upcurved gynophore; dehiscing by 2 valves from base upward. Seeds 1(2); arillate; endosperm oily.

Ploidy:

Habitat:

Elevation Range: